About us

We are developing Wear & Forget® wearables for continuous sweat biochemistry monitoring, combining on-demand sweat extraction with aptamer-based biosensing. Based at the Lausanne Biopôle, we are a small, multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers (fewer than 20 FTEs) driven by a shared passion for impact. We thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment where creativity, scientific excellence, and rapid iteration are at the core of everything we do.

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The scientific problem

Yes, aptamers are selective to bind but continuous biosensors require much more. An aptamer with excellent affinity can still be a poor sensor if binding produces little structural rearrangement, dissociation is too slow, the receptor becomes unstable after surface immobilisation, structurally related molecules cross-react, or the conformational equilibrium changes in a complex biological matrix. The challenge is therefore not simply to discover the lowest KD sequence. It is to engineer a reversible molecular switch in which affinity, conformational dynamics, kinetics, specificity, surface chemistry and electrochemical signal generation are designed together. At MoleSense, we want to move beyond conventional capture SELEX, affinity measurement, and immobilisation workflows.

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Who we’re looking for

We are looking for an experimental scientist who has already seen the limitations of conventional Electrochemical Aptamer Biosensors (E-AB).

Maybe you ran SELEX and realised that a strong binder is not automatically a good sensor. Maybe you bought or inherited a published aptamer and found that its reported performance did not reproduce in the assay. Maybe you built an electrochemical aptasensor and encountered the real problems: weak conformational switching, slow reversibility, surface effects, cross-reactivity, matrix interference or signal drift.

We want to work with people who question the current state of the field and want to push it forward — not simply build another incremental aptasensor.

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Who you are

You are an experimentalist first. You have worked hands-on with aptamers and electrochemistry and, ideally, have already developed an electrochemical aptamer-based biosensor during your BSc, MSc, PhD or postdoc.

At MoleSense, you will take existing/newly discovered aptamers and engineer them into reversible electrochemical molecular switches. You will interrogate and optimise their sequence, structure, conformational landscape, binding kinetics, surface presentation and electrochemical response until they are suitable for continuous wearable sensing.‍

This is not a protocol-execution role.

We want to work with someone who can identify the underlying mechanism, formulate a clear hypothesis, design the decisive experiment, interpret the result, and translate that insight into better sensor performance.

We are especially interested in experience with:

• Electrochemical aptamer sensing — SWV, CV, DPV, EIS and electrochemical surface characterisation (must have)
• Binding affinity & kinetics measurement— SPR, BLI, ITC (must have)
• Oligonucleotide immobilisation & electrode functionalisation — probe density, linker design and antifouling interfaces (must have)
• Aptamer structural & conformational characterisation (must have)
• Post-SELEX optimisation — sequence refinement, structure–function optimisation and functional validation (know the basics)
• Molecular modelling — secondary-structure prediction, MD or free-energy calculations (know the basics)

You should naturally ask questions like:

• Why does this aptamer bind but produce little electrochemical signal?
• Which nucleotides drive recognition and which only stabilise the scaffold?
• Can destabilising the unbound state improve signal gain?
• Is performance limited by KD, koff, conformational exchange, surface density or electron transfer?
• Should affinity be improved or weakened to obtain better reversibility?
• How does immobilisation reshape the aptamer’s conformational ensemble?

If these are the questions youwant to answer experimentally, we want to hear from you.

What we offer

• CHF 80,000–120,000 per year, depending on experience and qualifications + potential equity participation
• Ownership of a core molecular technology from day one
• Resources and autonomy to test ambitious ideas quickly
• Swiss visa and work-permit sponsorship for outstanding non-European candidates
• A fast-moving highly collaborative environment where scientific decisions happen quickly
• Clear opportunities to grow into scientific leadership as the company scales

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Who should apply

We welcome applications from outstanding recent graduates, final-year PhD candidates approaching completion, postdoctoral researchers and early-career scientists with unusually strong hands-on experience.

We care more about what you have personally designed, built, measured and understood (first author), than the title of your degree or long list of co-author publications.

What was the hardest molecular or electrochemical limitation you encountered, how did you determine its mechanism, and what did you change to solve it?

That answer will tell us more than a long list of techniques.